The Internet, also referred to as an “internetwork”, is a set of computer networks, possibly dissimilar, joined together by means of gateways that handle data transfer and the conversion of messages from a protocol of the sending network to a protocol used by the receiving network. When capitalized, the term “Internet” refers to the collection of networks and gateways that use the TCP/IP suite of protocols.
The Internet has become a cultural fixture as a source of both information and entertainment. Many businesses are creating Internet sites as an integral part of their marketing efforts, informing consumers of the products or services offered by the business or providing other information seeking to engender brand loyalty. Many federal, state, and local government agencies are also employing Internet sites for informational purposes, particularly agencies which must interact with virtually all segments of society such as the Internal Revenue Service and secretaries of state. Providing informational guides and/or searchable databases of online public records may reduce operating costs. Further, the Internet is becoming increasingly popular as a medium for commercial transactions.
Currently, the most commonly employed method of transferring data over the Internet is to employ the World Wide Web environment, also called simply “the Web”. Other Internet resources exist for transferring information, such as File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and Gopher, but have not achieved the popularity of the Web. In the Web environment, servers and clients effect data transaction using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), a known protocol for handling the transfer of various data files (e.g., text, still graphic images, audio, motion video, etc.). The information in various data files is formatted for presentation to a user by a standard page description language, the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). In addition to basic presentation formatting, HTML allows developers to specify “links” to other Web resources identified by a Uniform Resource Locator (URL). A URL is a special syntax identifier defining a communications path to specific information. Each logical block of information accessible to a client, called a “page” or a “Web page”, is identified by a URL. The URL provides a universal, consistent method for finding and accessing this information, not necessarily for the user, but mostly for the user's Web “browser”. A browser is a program capable of submitting a request for information identified by an identifier, such as, for example, a URL. A user may enter a domain name through a graphical user interface (GUI) for the browser to access a source of content. The domain name is automatically converted to the Internet Protocol (IP) address by a domain name system (DNS), which is a service that translates the symbolic name entered by the user into an IP address by looking up the domain name in a database.
In transferring and processing requests for data, such as Web pages, packets containing requests and data are sent over the Internet through one or more routes between the source and the destination. The transfer of these packets are part of HTTP transactions. In some cases, certain packets may be given priority over other packets. The ability to define a level of performance is called a quality of service (QoS). For example, many networks specify modes of service that ensure optimum performance for traffic such as real-time voice and video. QoS has become a major issue on the Internet as well as in enterprise networks, because voice and video are increasingly traveling over IP-based data networks that were not designed for continuous speech or viewing.
The priority of a packet is identified using a classification. A packet received by a server or router is classified to identify a QoS. A field may be set in a header of a packet to identify the classification of the packet. The classification of the packet is determined by comparing the packet to a policy rule within a policy, which is a set of rules used to handle packets. Characteristics, such as sender address, recipient address, data type, and user identification may be used as inputs into a policy rule. Currently, each packet is analyzed to identify a classification. This type of processing increases the time needed to route a packet to a destination.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to have an improved method, apparatus, and computer implemented instructions for classifying packets.